ANTI-VEGF IN MANAGEMENT OF MACULAR EDEMA IN RETINAL DISEASE

Abstract

Aim. To present new opportunities, clinical implications and benefits of the available VEGF therapy as a treatment of macular edema, which is a result of venous vascular occlusions, diabetic macular edema in diabetic retinopathy and age related macular degeneration. Background. The pathophysiology of macular edema is complex and various processes are involved in its development. It is actually an abnormal retinal capillary permeability and a disorder in the blood retinal barrier, which only increases the vascular permeability. This causes an expansion of the extracellular spaces, which leads to fluid accumulation, which additionally leads to macular thickening and eventual vision loss. Methods. The studies included 40 patients, of whom17 was diagnosed with macular edema in diabetic retinopathy and were treated with anti-VEGF therapy. Also, there were 11 patients diagnosed with wet form of AMD, and 12 cases diagnosed with macular edema secondary to vein occlusion. This retrospective study of 18 months monitored the effects of visual acuity on Snellen chart and the effects of macula anatomy using Optical Coherent tomography /OCT/. All patients received intravitreal injection of Bevacizumab /Avastin/ of 1.25mg /0.04ml/ and were evaluated monthly or every 4 to 8 weeks. We monitored the potential ocular and systematic side effects in all our cases. Results. In the first group which included patients with edema due to venous vascular occlusion improvement of visual acuity in 58.33% patients, 25.0% showed no change in visual acuity and 16.66% showed slight worsening of 0.029 and regression of CMT entirely to 393.22 after 4.6 intravitreal injections on average. In the second group there was no improvement of VA 0.172 and reducing central macular thickness for 218.34μm by 5.6 intravitreal applications. The third group, 17 patients with macular edema due to diabetic retinopathy had stabilization of visual acuity, i.e. slight improvement in 8 of them by 0.14; and, in 9 and improvement of 0.21 and regression CMT, an average of 174.3 μm. Although it has been shown that benefit of intravitreal use of Bevacizumab and improvement of visual acuity has not been always change hand in hand with the reduction of macular edema, the need for this kind of treatment in certain cases are needed to maintain stable CMT and VA in such patients. Conclusion. Over the last few years monoclonal antibodies have become a standard therapy in treatment of wet form of AMD. Switch on anti-VEGF drugs has shown significant results in clinical and visual out- comes in patients with changes of the macula as a result of other disease. In fact, they caused a revolution in the treatment of refractory macular edema.